Conventionally, as a litter box for animals such as cats, a litter box has been known which is provided with an evacuation container of which upper surface is open and a hood covering an upper side of the evacuation container, the hood having an opening for an animal going in and out. For such an animal litter box with a hood, when cleaning up the box, it is necessary to remove the hood or put one's hand into the box from the opening formed on the hood. However, it takes much effort to take off the hood whenever cleaning up the box. Furthermore, it is hard to remove the urine or feces of the animal completely when putting one's hand into the box from the opening.
To solve the abovementioned problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application First Publication No. 2002-325520 (“the '520 application”) has disclosed an animal litter box comprising a hood having a fixed hood covering one half of an evacuation container, and a movable hood covering the other half of the evacuation container. The movable hood is formed to move rotatably, and the animal litter box is configured to store the movable hood inside or outside of the fixed hood when the movable hood is moved rotatably.
Regarding the animal litter box as described in the '520 application, a prescribed distance needs to be formed between the movable hood and the fixed hood so that the movable hood can be moved along the inner side or outer side the fixed hood. Here, in the case where the distance between the movable hood and the fixed hood is reduced, when the movable hood is opened or closed, the fixed hood may be contacted with the movable hood and the like due to small flexure or deformation of the fixed hood or the movable hood, which causes the movable hood to be stuck. On the other hand, in a case where the distance between the movable hood and the fixed hood is enlarged, the animal litter box cannot be sealed completely even though the movable hood is closed.